How do people do this?

[RD.]

I personally found my friends JDM style tank linked to above impressive. Not my cup of tea, but one of the most impressive set ups of high quality, expensive fish, that I had ever seen up close. And all very healthy specimens, managed as a community for years. Tanks like this always require some juggling of fish due to behavioral issues, but the same could be said about an all-male African cichlid tank.

 

[RD.]

Another one of Brett's tanks. 600 gallon, 8x4x2 I believe.

 

[jjohnwm]

Yep, as stated by RD. the issue of water quality is easily (although not inexpensively) solved with sufficiently sized filtration of the correct type, usually in concert with massive water changes. So the "how" isn't an insurmountable obstacle.

But the "why" is not as straightforward. Some folk look at tanks like that and think "Wow! That looks great!" They must think so, why do it otherwise? Bragging rights? Insecure machismo? If lots is good, lots more must be even better! Personally, I don't know and don't care. I feel unhappy seeing those fish kept like that, but that's just personal ethics and morals, no more or less valid than anyone else's.

My biggest beef with this kind of thing is the complete reliance upon everything working correctly. If something goes wrong with the filtration, source water, heating, etc. a tank like one of these would suffer a catastophic collapse in very short order; I'm talking about hours, not days. Even if I could bear to look at the thing, I couldn't sleep at night worrying about what could go wrong. Murphy's Law is a real thing, and when you have Murphy living in your guest bedroom 24/7...he's gonna cause trouble eventually...

 

[RD.]

Let’s face it, the reality is that most of what takes place in this hobby is at best borderline animal cruelty. Millions of tropical fish die every day, long before they even reach the end user. Out of those that survive the first stage, many die shortly after due to numerous (pick one) reasons, that again fall under what many would consider animal cruelty.

I for one have been guilty of same in the past.